Patients could grow new liver in their bodies

LIVER disease sufferers could grow replacement organs within their bodies from implanted cells if a new technique can be perfected.

The ground-breaking treatment would end the need for donor organs – giving hope to thousands desperate for a transplant before time runs out.

After successful lab studies, the first of 12 patients with end-stage liver disease has been injected with healthy cells. They are implanted into one of the body’s 500 lymph nodes – small structures that filter viruses and bacteria from the blood.

Pre-clinical trials show these cells, harvested from donor livers, act as a building block to turn the lymph into a functioning liver able to filter out toxins from the blood. Researchers estimate one donor liver can provide enough cells to grow 75 new ones.

Michael Hufford, CEO of Lygenesis, which has developed the therapy at its US base in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said: “The days of patients waiting months on a liver transplant list and the days of people dying waiting for a transplant could be numbered if these trials are successful. Even if this technique were to increase the amount of functioning liver by 10 to 20 per cent it could be lifesaving.”

But patients may have to remain on anti-rejection drugs for life, he added.

More than 800 people are on the waiting list for a new liver in the UK, while only 700 transplants are carried out each year.

There are over 10,000 deaths due to liver disease each year – four times more than five decades ago.

Experts hope the therapy could be approved within five years and widely available in 10 if trials are successful.

The liver is the only organ with the ability to regenerate. Even when it is damaged, it still releases growth factors and other molecules. The donor cells appear to pick up on these cues to form new liver structures.

Prof Derek Manas, a liver surgeon in Newcastle, said: “There are a lot of people waiting for transplants. If it works it would give us more options.”